While the topic of social media often dissolves into discussions and debates regarding its power and addictive qualities, it is undeniable that it has significantly changed the way people communicate and receive information.
However, perhaps more importantly, social media has changed how we consume.
New research has shown that those who document their food choices and eating experiences, habits, and opinions on social media assist researchers in studying consumer market preferences and attitudes when buying. As a result, this has been shown to influence changes in food production.
The collation of digital data from social media regarding “sensory-consumer” science has grown staggeringly over the last decade, according to a review published in the Research International Journal by food scientists from the crown research institute, AgResearch.
“The type of social media material we are talking about here could range from an online review commenting on the taste of a protein bar to a tweet talking about the carbon footprint of meat,” shared AgResearch senior scientist Scott Hutchings.
“We found that analysis of social media for this research offers advantages such as scale and accessibility and may present an increased ability to investigate trends over time, as well as easier access to cross-cultural or global insights.”
However, disadvantages include that data collated from social media are heavily biased and do not necessarily reflect the general population or target market, given that different social media platforms are popular amongst sometimes niche and specific demographics.
“ While participant biases can also impact conventional research methods, they can be more easily overcome when working with those methods. Then there is also the issue of the overall precision of the data from social media being generally inferior to that other research methods.”
Data collected is part of the permissions of social media platforms. The research is necessary as it supports food producers to respond to consumer demands and adapt to consumer desires. This can directly profit countries that rely on food production as a source of national income, such as New Zealand.
“What people want from food, or expect from their eating experiences, will vary greatly and changes over time. By growing our insights, we can access more rapid, dynamic, and cost-effective information on what attributes, such as the sensory experience and how the food is produced. That is what consumers want to see in their food.”
The scientists involved in the review stated that further research is required to identify when and how social media can best function as an alternative or complementary tool to conventional food research methods.
